Sweet Serenade
by CarolineLeighMorgan
Summary: Relationships aren't easy, especially ones that are kept secret. Brook Lynn experiences that firsthand. Brook-Lynn/Johnny, Oneshot. Rated for minor sex scene.


**Title:** Sweet Serenade  
**AN:** No set timeline but Georgie never died. Implied Georgie/Dillon.  
**Rating:** R  
**Type:** Angst/Romance  
**Summary:** Relationships aren't easy, especially ones that are kept secret. Brook Lynn experiences that firsthand.

---

She can feel Johnny slipping away. The days draw together but it's always the same, short tempers and words meant to hurt. When they aren't fighting, they're having sex—desperate and angry. And when they're not doing either, it's quiet and uneasy between them… unsure and treading on a thin line.

Brook Lynn fears the worst. Her heart sinks with the knowledge. She's losing Johnny, day by day, and she doesn't know how to stop it. Stubbornness and insecurity take over, allowing him to push her further and further away. She doesn't know how to stop the cycle from continuing and maybe it's better that way, in the long run. They can finally give up the charade… go their separate ways and no longer have to worry about keeping this from everyone else.

She makes it to Johnny's place and she can barely hear the chords of the piano from outside his door. The guard lets her in with a short nod and she makes her way down the hall, following the music that drifts through the air. He always plays so beautifully. Her skin tingles with the melody as she makes her way towards him. She's beside him in an instant and then she's straddling his lap on the bench seat without thinking. His fingers stumble over keys at her interruption.

"Brook, what—"

She silences him with a kiss, heated and sure. Johnny opens to the touch, hands braced on her hips and fingers running along the hem of her shirt. She moans against his mouth, broken only by more urgent kisses as broad, hot hands press along her skin. Johnny breaks the kiss to haul them up against the piano. Brook Lynn's legs instantly wrap around his waist as her hands start working the button and zipper of his jeans. In no time, he's taking her against the piano. One hand braces against the cold, fine wood while the other clutches onto his shoulder. Her nails dig in and Johnny grunts in pain, pushing in that much harder. The only music in the room now is the sound of their mingled breaths—Brook's soft whimpers and Johnny's gruff moans.

---

Brook Lynn lies in bed, wide awake. Johnny sleeps beside her. The cool sheets lie twisted and wrapped around their bodies, separating them. The moon shines in through a slit in the curtains and casts a glow on Johnny's body. Her eyes focus on the tiny indents on Johnny's shoulder and she traces them with her fingers but Johnny doesn't stir. She doesn't know why she feels so guilty.

She can hear Johnny breathing; the steady sound of a deep sleep. The quiet makes her anxious and she hums a tune in her head. Just before drifting off, Brook Lynn recognizes it as the tune Johnny was playing in the music room earlier.

---

Several days later they break up. Brook Lynn is overwhelmed with the Quartermaines and her mom coming back into town. Her father wants them to try and mend their relationship while also helping to launch her music career. She seems to be drawing the short straw when it comes to Johnny's priorities. What once was fun and carefree between them slowly withers away. It's like Johnny can't even make the effort anymore and Brook Lynn grows tired of the secrecy. She wants to tell her parents about the great guy she's been seeing… wants to get Georgie and Maxie off her back for not having a boyfriend of her own… wants to be able to act like a couple so Lulu will stop flirting with Johnny in front of her face. She just wants everyone to know that Johnny is hers and she is his.

When they break up though, Johnny doesn't even put up much of a fight. It's stilted words and tired accusations and Brook Lynn tries not to cry. She walks away from him with an empty feeling in her stomach and a knot in her chest. Johnny doesn't try to stop her, doesn't call her name. She doesn't hear anything the whole way home.

---

Brook Lynn goes through the motions. She hears her mom and dad talk about her behind closed doors, whispered words that carry anyway and she hates it. She dodges Georgie and Dillon as much as possible but they finally corner her and manage to bring her out to Kelly's. She thanks the heavens that Johnny is leaving just as they head in. He smiles at her, awkward and private. Then he notices Dillon and Georgie and he continues on his way. Brook Lynn's face falls even as her eyes follow him until he's too far away.

"Sorry, I—I'm not hungry, guys. I'm just going to head home." She can already hear their protests and she waves them away as she walks in the opposite direction. "I'll catch up with you guys later. I'm sorry."

She ignores the call of her name from both their lips as she runs away from Kelly's. She blocks everything out but the beating of her broken heart.

---

When she sees them again a couple of days later, Georgie and Dillon don't ask questions even though she knows they want to. She's grateful even though she can't say it, so she agrees to go out with them later that night more so because they won't take no for an answer. The park is pretty full but it's a nice summer night so it's not unexpected especially with the Fair taking place down on the other side. Brook Lynn is so lost in thought—pieces of melodies swimming in her head as well as trying to ignore the 'happy couple'—that it takes her a while to realize that there is actually music playing and not just from the cheesy carnival.

It's soft and sweet, a little sad with bits of wonder in them—gentle notes and a steady beat. Brook Lynn's heart quickens in her chest and she swallows carefully, eyes a little wide because she's heard that sound before, but not like this… not so open and sure—without the gritted curses and angry sharp plinks of not-right notes… not completed. It makes her stop in her tracks, the absurdity of a piano in the Port Charles Park and the immensity of Johnny the one playing it. Her breath stutters. She feels light-headed, only worsened by the flash of teeth and then the soft smile Johnny offers her.

"You—what?"

She doesn't even know when she made it to the piano. She can barely hear Georgie cooing in excitement from somewhere behind her. Belatedly, she realizes they played her and she'll have to figure that all out later. Right now, there's Johnny and he's playing piano and people are watching and his eyes have not left her face as his fingers play expertly—like he doesn't care… like there's nothing but him and her and the music.

Brook Lynn has to hold on to the side of the piano so she doesn't fall. She's out in the open but it's like she can't even get the air into her lungs properly, too dazed to even breathe. She was so sure they were over. Johnny never put up a fight. She—they—weren't that important. But here he is. And he's playing for her. A song so beautiful it makes her heart break and her eyes tear up.

"Why?"

Johnny tilts his head, small smile on his face as he continues hitting notes. And she thinks that's supposed to be an answer but everything is too hazy to do so at the moment. Brook Lynn eyes him curiously, the music sounds familiar but yet she can't place it. Then it hits her… the day she went over to his place… this is that same song but instead of jumbled pieces, it's whole.

"For me?" The question is incredulous and awestruck.

Johnny nods and she's almost sad to hear the song wind down. His fingers move gingerly over the keys as they slow down… one note, then another… melody flowing through the air with each pass of his fingers… then the final strike. Johnny's eyes never waver from her face and Brook Lynn has to fight not to turn away.

When he finishes, she can hear everyone clapping around her. Applause so loud it drowns away the stuttered gasp that escapes her throat as Johnny stands in front of her. His hand palms her cheek, thumb stroking along her jaw, and she blinks up at him in wonder. Johnny's lips press against hers, a light caress of mouth against mouth and she falls into it. Hands clutch his dark button-down shirt and her legs feel unsteady as they hold her up. Johnny's fingers sink into her hair and she can hear the whistles and catcalls all around them. Her face heats up and she laughs into the kiss, breaking them apart.

"Johnny. I—why?"

"I couldn't let you get away."

She shakes her head, eyes meeting his in confusion. "You already did."

"I was stupid. I should—" he sighs, hands cradled on her waist. "I should have never let you walk out that door."

She doesn't deny it. "What changed?" She notices Johnny looking over her shoulder but she doesn't want to stop looking at him to see where he's looking. She can probably take a guess anyway.

"Someone told me I was being stupid. That I needed to own up to what I wanted, stop hiding and stand up for the person I love." Johnny leans closer, mouths a breath apart as he adds earnestly. "Can you forgive me, Brook?"

"I think—" She starts, brushing their lips together teasingly, smile on her face, "we can work something out. On a couple of conditions."

"Yeah?" Johnny asks trailing after her with a smile of his own, fingers digging into the groove of her hips.

"Yeah." She drops another kiss on his lips.

"What's the first one?" Johnny grins against her mouth, eyes crossing almost comically as he tries to keep her gaze.

"I'm thinking you should say that thing you said… you know, before."

Johnny tilts her head up, crushing their lips together in a bruising kiss as his hands frame her face. When they break apart, he breathes the words against her lips _I love you_. Brook Lynn can't help but smile and mouth the words right back at him.

---

Brook Lynn feels a little bad that she ditched Dillon and Georgie but as she lies against Johnny's chest with his arms wrapped around her, she thinks maybe they'll forgive her.

"I can't believe you wrote me a song."

Johnny brushes the curls of her hair off her shoulder, peppering the newly bared skin with kisses. One. Two. Three. Up along the line of her neck and over her pulse point. Brook's head drops as her eyes flutter closed, surrendering.

"All it needs now is your voice."

The smile on Brook Lynn's face widens as she turns in his arms and straddles his waist. She feels stupidly giddy as her heart pounds away against her chest. Johnny wrote her a song, serenading her with it in a public park full of strangers (and friends) and now he wanted her to sing… with his music. She didn't think she could have fallen more in love with him if she tried.

Everything isn't perfect. They still have issues they need to hash out—mistakes to correct, on both their parts—but they've already gotten through one hurdle by being so open and out where everyone can see them. They'll just have to take the rest as it comes but Brook thinks with the way Johnny's looking at her—the way his hands hold onto her body and hers hold onto his—the rest isn't looking too bad.

---


End file.
